Football: Kendall linked with Wales: Toshack explains resignation

HOWARD KENDALL has emerged as a possible successor to lead Wales out of turmoil, following the abrupt departure of John Toshack.

The former Everton manager is known to be interested in the vacancy, although he has also declared himself among the runners for the job at Wolves. His name was put forward as a replacement for Toshack at last night's emergency council meeting of the Football Association of Wales.

There is support for Terry Yorath to be reappointed but, while he is clearly the choice of the players and supporters, a return to the old regime would be a difficult choice for the FAW, which is being sued by the former national team manager for unfair dismissal.

It was the new revelations over Yorath's position, and the legal action that is scheduled to go before an industrial tribunal in a few months' time, that most concerned Toshack, who arrived at Heathrow from Spain yesterday to expand on his shock decision to quit after only 48 days and one game in charge.

Toshack said he had encountered an 'atmosphere' he wanted no part of a 'battle' he could not win. 'Until it (the court case) is out of the way, people will be more concerned about that than anything else, and the situation is going to fester,' he said. 'I did not feel that I was in control of the situation.' Initially, he had welcomed the challenge of running the Welsh team on a part-time basis, while continuing his full-time coaching role with Real Sociedad. He was assured, he said, that Yorath would not get his job back under any circumstances.

Then he learned that, prior to his appointment, his predecessor had been told by FAW councillors that the job was his if he could hang on. 'If I had known that Terry was still in with a chance, I would not have taken it on. I thought I was the only candidate.

'Now I see Terry is back in the running again. On the one hand you have someone suing them and on the other his employers, who are challenging it. Yet they are being brought back together again. It is all very confusing, and I wash my hands of it.'

Before last night's meeting Alun Evans, the FAW chief executive, whose own conduct in the saga has been widely criticised, said that the legal action would not be a bar to Yorath taking over again. 'That has no political significance,' he said. 'It is the natural reaction of someone who has lost his job.'